Curious as a Cat

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Who is the most caring, or kindest, person you've ever known? How did they exhibit those characteristics?

I have been very fortunate to know lots of very kind people throughout my life. Probably the one person who makes me feel cherished and loved most consistently--outside of my immediate family--is Jen. There are others who show they care in the moment, and are negligently kind all the time, but I rarely feel like I'm infringing on her time and she takes the time to listen and just says the right things. Always. To nearly everyone. It's a real skill. Being around her just makes me feel calm and peaceful and loved, even when things are going to hell for one or the other of us.

Which year was the best of your life? How old were you? Would you want to live it again?

I have to omit childhood because it's just not fair to include the grade school years, or even high school, as I was so totally unaware and wrapped up in cotton wool (most of the time). So, counting from around age 20 to now, I have to say that the first year of motherhood, about age 29-30, was outstanding: I was busy, and life was chaotic and stressful, but I was happy. Exhausted, but happy, and needed. I don't think I'd actually want to do it again (because of the exhausted and stressful parts), but it was a great period in my life.

If you could forget one thing, what would it be?

Pain. My sister once told me, in discussing childbirth, that you forget the pain once it's over. Unfortunately, I have not found this to be true. I don't feel pain as acutely after the moment passes, but the memory of pain stays with me and oppresses me sometimes. Not just childbirth, incidentally, but pain of any kind: from Darfur to the Holocaust to personal feelings that were hurt in high school or at the grocery store (my feelings hurt, or hurt inflicted by me).